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tv   Countdown With Keith Olbermann  MSNBC  April 8, 2010 10:00pm-11:00pm EDT

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addition. a new addition has been heralded by the joint institute for nuclear research in russia. a joint team of american and russian scientists say they've created a new element over a five-month period. they managed to create six atoms of it using a particle accelerator to smash an atom of calcium into beryllium. this is super geeky. b what do you get? 117. the new element has an atomic number of 117. for now it's being called element 117. in fake latin for 117, they're calling it ununseptium. it might get to move you to its
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square on the periodic table. researchers will get to give it a real fame. for scientists, getting to name an element is beyond the nobel prize. you are on the fly happy, on the tattoo. "the new york times" tried to get some of the researchers involved in creating element 117 to speculate on what they might night name it. one researcher told the times, quote, we'd never discuss names because it's like bad karma. like talking about a no-hitter during the no-hitter. we've never spoken of it aloud. >> i don't want to jinx it either, but it's being called 117. i'm just saying, there is a p.s. 117, public school 117 in jamaica queens, pre-k through sixth grade. wouldn't it be kosher to name it
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after the school to get kids psyched after the element? come on, p.s. 117-ium. "countdown" starts right now. which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? >> prague, the czech republic where 42 springs ago, the superpowers edged close to nuclear weapon. nuclear weapons are suddenly reduced by one-third. >> nuclear weapons are not simply an issue for the united states and russia. they threaten the common security of all nations. >> are there 67 votes to ratify in the senate? ronald reagan's secretary of state endorses the deal and the lunatic fringe mindlessly opposes it.
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the threats against the speaker of the house main line back -- to quote the man's mother, i'd say fox news or all of those that are really radical, that's where he comes from. don't worry. it's all just a game. i could give a flying crap about the political process. we're an entertainment company. here we go. >> on the tee, tiger woods! >> i'm going to find out what your feelings are, and did you learn anything. >> it's tiger. i need you to do me a huge favor. >> worse, you'll never believe who owns the website, can bachmanrally.com. and the first secret story in the history of "countdown." i'll surround. i'll start now. and john hodgeman is here to
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help me. all the news and commentary now on "countdown." good evening from new york. president obama and russian president medvedev signing the new stark treaty. in our fifth story, the agreement will be mute unless it is ratified by two-thirds of the september where republicans have not decided go they're for it or against it, even though the first treaty was proposed by none other than ronald reagan and signed by president george h.w. bush. this has been endorseded by president reagan's secretary of state. the leaders of the two countries, which combined account for 90% of the world's nuclear weapons putting pen to paper to a reduction of one-third. long-range nuclear weapons would be limited to 700 for each
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nation. as we mentioned, the first treaty initiated by president reagan. one said, quote, i believe we've come to the appointment of reduce onning if not eliminating the nuclear weapons that are a threat to the world. the treaty signed by president bush in 2001. and secretary shultz describing the treaty signed today as containing, quote, relatively modest reductions. he concluded, i think it's a constructive step. secretary of state clinton at today's i'm sorry in prague noting that the senate has a long history of bipartisan approval of such treaties. the view of senator luger, the ranking republican, said to be favorable. and an aide saying the senator hopes the vote to ratify the treaty will be there. in a letter to the president last month, minority leader mcconnell and senator kyle, the number two republican in the
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senate, raising concerns about the treaty because they believe it links offensive weapons and missile defense. the senators warning the president, quoting, it is highly unlikely the senate would ratify a treaty that includes such a linkage. any references to missile defense made in the preamble and not in the treaty document itself to avoid an official link. a news conference, president obama saying he and the russian president would continue to talk about missile defense, adding he believes the u.s. would be no less safe because of it. >> i've repeatedly said that we will not do anything that endangers or limits my ability as commander in chief to protect the american people. and we think that missile defense can be an important component of that. but we also want to make clear that the approach that we've taken in no way is intended to change the strategic balance between the united states and russia. >> meanwhile, sister sarah
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opposing the president's entire approach. reducing all this to terms she could understand. kids on a playground. >> no administration in america's history would, i think, ever have considered such a step that we just found out that president obama is supporting today. you know, that's kind of like getting out there on the playground, a bunch of kids ready to fight and one of the kids, saying, go ahead and punch me in the face and i'm not going to retaliate. no, it's unacceptable. this is another thing that the american people, the more they find out what is a part of this agenda, they'll rise up and say, no more. national security is the number one job of the federal government. >> that woman is an idiot. earlier on abc's world news, the president asked by george stephanopolous to respond to
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sarah palin. >> i really have no response to that. last i checked, sarah palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues. >> he put it better than i did. let's turn inside to richard burt, former ambassador to germany, to the first treaty signed in germany in 1991. ambassador, thanks much for your time tonight. >> greetings, keith, from a fellow cornellian. >> the first stark treaty, how far important was it given that lapse that the u.s. and russia reach another one and quickly? >> i think it's very important. not because we can't lift for an extended period of time without them, but i think that the treaty, while it is, as my old boss pointed out, a modest step
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toward further reduction. as the president pointed out, it creates a platform for a new negotiation, a follow-on negotiations, where we can achieve real reductions, maybe down to a thousand altogether, but ones that would be stored. and also hundreds and in the russian case, thousands of tactical nuclear weapons. the short-range nuclear weapons. it if we could get a new treaty over the next two or three years that really was -- took a significant bite out of the two countries' nuclear arsenals, we could take the bold step of bringing other nuclear powers into a negotiation like the chinese, the indians and the pakistanis. >> to try to subtract the partisanship from the equati equation -- ask anything in politics is almost possible -- i'd like your assessment. you heard what secretary shultz said, your former boss, as you
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mentioned. do you believe this is the kind of agreement president reagan would have wanted? >> it's clearly one ronald reagan would have supported. ronald reagan coined the phrase, "trust but verify." the treaty has very vigorous verification provisions. it reduces both sides' nuclear stock piles. it's important to remember ronald reagan was fundamentally uncomfortable with nuclear weapons. and i think in the 21st century, when the threat is not russian nuclear attack or a chinese nuclear attack, but nuclear proliferation, the spread of nuclear weapons to rogue states like iran or terrorist groups like al qaeda, i'm sure that ronald reagan would have strongly supported this. >> and everyone off the table is an improvement, per se, correct? >> absolutely. what president obama has done is together with this treaty, and the nuclear posture review of
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you mentioned, where he clearly changed the priorities of american nuclear policy, he is saying we need to focus on the spread of nuclear weapons. we have to focus on nuclear terrorism. and next week's summit meeting where nuclear security -- and that means locking down all loose nukes and nuclear materials world wide is coming forward with a really transformational vision for nuclear weapons in the 21st century. and i think in the end, as a result of this. there will be some outliars who won't support it. but i think republican senators will support it, led by dick luger, because of the recognition if we can't be seen as making programs in arms a arsen arsenal, we're creating another argument for president mahmoud ahmadinejad to create their stock piles. >> you mentioned the outliars in
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the senate. what else would you say to those senators who might contemplate voting against this new s.t.a.r.t. treaty. >> i'm remindeded of the phrase used in the vietnam war when he talked about the united states in danger of becoming a crippled giant. the failure to ratify this agreement would not only mean no more progress on dealing with nuclear terrorism, but it would cripple american foreign policy across the board. >> xwroambassador richard burt, with global zero, thanks for your time, sir. >> thank you, keith. for more on republican reaction to the signing of the new treaty, trial to bring in howard fine mman, who is in new orleans tonight, and who did not attend cornell. >> reporter: good evening. >> is there any indication they
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figured out yet that the nuclear arms treaty that was signed by this president is as ambassador burt put it? >> reporter: the wheelhouse of the republican party as we know it. i mentioned that point about ronald reagan to them. it got zero response. when ronald reagan did it, it was a sign of strength. if i took a vote in there, it would be 2,000 to nothing against ratfying the s.t.a.r.t. treaty. >> can you possibly nail what the disconnect is there? how far they could simply ignore this happened in their own past? >> reporter: well, i think it has everything to do with barack obama. and it has to do also partly with the fact -- i think while
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he never would have made a sale in here, if it were the s.t.a.r.t. treaty alone, if it hadn't come wrapped in the strategy of the use of nuclear weapons, lauded by many people in the united states and the world, then it might be a different story. here the words i hear inside that room -- and they're going to be republican presidential candidates speaking in here in the coming days -- i heard words like naive. that was the kindest one, weakness, and even treason. these people look at what barack obama wants to do with nuclear weapons. ronald reagan notwithstanding and view it through the lens of their fear and distrust of the president. >> there are some like george shultz -- not seem to -- they're implying this did not go far enough. we heard ambassador burt talk about how this needs to be a starting point for something is
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much more generalized in the next two to three years. couldn't the right have taken the opposite tack on this, that none of this is going far enough? wouldn't that have fed the necessity to yell at obama about something? >> reporter: well, it might be, but it's not going that way. you can tell all the republican candidates, led by sarah palin, are going to be taking a harsh stance against this. it's interesting. i talked to some senate republicans today. they're taking in washington and on the hill, a somewhat more cautious view. they want to see the treaty. they have some concerns. they're not ready to stand full-out against it. at the conservative grassroots, which to some extent this really does represent, they're flat-out no on everything obama is proposing to do. they'll call it weakness and run on it. >> give me your assessment. eight votes are needed on the republican side.
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is he going to get them? >> reporter: richard lugar doesn't drive the train in the senate. mitch mcconnell of kentucky does. i think in the end they'll get it. if you look at what the treaty is it, you can meet a lot of republican objections and meet conservative concerns. what republicans have to worry about is the way this thing is going to be portrayed outside of washington. and at the grassroots of the republican party. i can assure you everyone at the grassroots is going to be standing on the sidewalk screaming, no. at least based on what i heard in this room tonight. >> howard fineman at the southern republican leadership conference in new orleans. thanks, howard. >> reporter: thank you, keith. >> on top of that bitter irony, another day of bitter irony, for those trying to diffuse the anger from the far right. the mother of the han accused of making threatening calls to the speaker of the house said she thought his main influences were radicals and fox news. the head of fox news said he
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on the same day glenn beck reveals he doesn't give a, quote, flying crap about the political process, the man threatening of accusing nancy pelosi said he was driven in part by fox news. thousands cheer as tiger woods returns to golf. millions learn there's no golf term that doesn't sound kind of dirty. inside a tea party so nuts the congressman tells them they are being put on the defensive by fox, and my epic life-changing decision tonight, lunkheadedness, you're watching "countdown." en you least expect. a regular moment can become romantic. and when it does, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis. with two clinically proven dosing options, you can choose the moment that's right for you and your partner. 36-hour cialis and cialis for daily use. cialis for daily use is a low-dose tablet
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the man arrested yesterday on charges of threatening house speaker nancy pelosi about passage of health care reform got his ideas from fox news. we know this because in our fourth story tonight, the defendant's mother says so. the defendant, greg giusti, a history of making threats, he is accused this time of repeatedly calling speaker pelosi's office, home and husband's business, reciting her home address and saying she should oppose health care reform if she wanted to see her home again. as mediamatters.com reported, she has spent the year under blistering attack from fox news hosts. bill o'reilly referring to her fidel castro stuff and marie antoinette, and sarah palin saying don't retreat, reload.
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glen beck talking about poisoning pelosi, talking about the end of america as we know it because now president obama can control every aspect of our lives. greg giusti's mother blames fox news. >> greg has frequently gets in with a group of people that have really radical ideas, and that are not consistent with myself or his -- rest of the family, and -- which gets him into problems. and apparently i would say this must be another one that somehow he's gotten on to, either by -- i say fox news, or all of those that are really radical, and he -- that's where he comes from. >> shepherd smith on fox said that some of those shouting end of the world, quote, maybe don't believe it. now a new forbes magazine
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profile of beck confirms that beck's only real interest is making more than his current $32 million a year as a man of the people. quote, i could give a flying crap about the political process. we're an entertainment company. he has these pictures in his office, ronald reagan, who was in favor of the s.t.a.r.t. treaty, paul harvey, orson welles, bone hope, jack benny and walt disney. no thomas paine. why would he bother to try to earn $32 million a year if the government's going to take it from him anyway. let's bring in chris hayes, washington editor of "the nation" magazine, who i think makes a little less than $32 million. >> how did you guess? >> good to see you in the flesh. >> good to see you too. >> if fox news viewers are crazy enough or easily led enough to believe that america is under assault from within by essentially a fraudulent government, isn't taking arms up to defend america versus the
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government, isn't that -- if the premise could be illogical but the follow-up is logical, that's the danger, right? >> that's right. look. i tend to be really sort of free speech absolutist about this stuff and i think you sort of share that. those that you want to be careful about drawing these distinctions. >> yes. >> that said, there is increasingly violent rhetoric. there is an enraged ethos being stoked. i think it is problematic and does impart some moral culpability also. >> they're on record for blaming pelosi for inciting violence on herself. thus the odds against seeing this story turn them into people who say, oh, we have -- the scales have fallen from our eyes. we better cool this. the odds against that are what? >> they're zero. right now there is no -- this is one of the things dangerous and
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disturbing. there's only incentives to fuel the fire. the marketing incentives in terms of fundraising, audience share, everything pushes in the direction of extremity and nothing pushes against it. so that's the problematic thing. it's locked into this vicious cycle in which stoking and stoking and stoking is what is getting people, ratings, attention. i don't see any incentive or space for people to be the brakes on that. >> we can say also that maybe there are links and fox can respond, but jim david atkisson, is the example i always use. he walked into a union taryn church in tennessee and shot the police up and killed two people, because he said in his manifesto, he could not kill the liberals destroying the country. that's not -- bernard goldberg is on fox news every night, virtually. this isn't debatable there's a link. so what has to happen -- there was a link in that case, and we
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have the giusti link, from his mother, we think she knows something of what's going on. what has to happen for society at large to look at rupert murdoch and those who pervade this stuff? what you hope is that something really awful doesn't happen. again, i don't want to be an alarmist, but the last time we did have an extremely powered and enrageded radical right, there was the largest domestic attack on american soil. we've seen domestic terror attacks or plotted domestic terror attacks. there has to be a point in which you put certain things outside of the spectrum of civil discourse. >> how? >> i don't know. i mean, that's the problem, right? you call them out. >> not to put you on the spot because i have no answer to that either. >> i believe in john stewart milva the response to bad speech is more speech and you call them out as much as possible. but again, it seems like there's
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a structural problem here that has to be on track. i hope you see people on the right standing up to say, this is -- we want to be a democratic nonviolent movement. those are two incredibly important words, not a revolutionary movement. those things are distinct. >> maybe we could pledge it with everything from the left starting with those words. literally every speech given to somebody on the left or democratic partier even moderate or independent should start by saying, we are pledgeded to nonviolence." chris hayes, thank you. >> thank you. what about the place so right wing fox is considered part of their problem? we'll take you inside a tea party meeting with a congressman inside louisiana. but tiger woods is back restoring america's will to live. there's a hospital where technology has a healing touch. there's a factory giving old industries new life.
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tiger woods reminds us there aren't golf terms that sound like double entendres. he tease tees off and tries to sink a few putts. but on this day, james augusta hunter was born, a hall of famer, and also the game's first big money free agent but more importantly one of the great people of sports. humble and generous of his time, even to rookie reporters like me. so revered when he decided to auction off personal memorabilia to set up college funds for his grandchildren, it wasn't just collectors like me, but then active major league baseball players, who made sure none of
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those items went for less than twice what they were thought to be worth. let's play "oddball." different kind of baseball story, at houston. hello. the astros taking on the san francisco giants. this is the giant's outfielder valez pinch-hitting and sporting a giant typo. i left my spell check in san francisco. he said he didn't know his jersey was misspelled. the club reassures fans the jersey will be fixed before the next road game. an influx of white pelicans, a local morning show brought in bird expert walt crawford in scoop the pelican, in, you can see where this is going. poor walt got the scoop. oh. oh.
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>> are you okay, walt? >> yeah, he's going to step back. he got him right there in the unmentionables. darn you, mr. pelican? >> scoop! anyway. >> anyway. mr. crawford was not quite done getting pelican briefed. >> not a second time, no. ow! >> are you all right there? >> i'll be fine. >> is that a natural thing or did he train him to do that? his recovering might benefit from a new line of working not to mention ice. somehow that segues us perfectly into the return of tiger woods. [ male announcer ] redesigned power e-trade pro.
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and helpful resources. ♪ purina cat chow. share a better life. teeing it up it had been 144 days since tiger woods last played professional golf. 144 days, which is a gross, which is how one blogger describes the new ad, writes
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jessica on thefrisky.com. in our third story, tiger woods is back in the headlines for making par, not sexy time. his new commercial for nike is creeping people out. at the masters tournament in augusta, woods and his threesome, no giggling, had a 12:42 tee time. security was heavy. an exceptional reporter noting a conversation he overheard. what happens if he yelled at someone else in his group, would you still get pounced? the guard nodded. on monday, woods said the reception from the gallery blew him away. today the crowd was once again in full throat, the cheering on the ground was loud and sustained. in the air was a plane saying, tiger, did you mean bootyism, a play on buddhism. we don't know if he saw the billboard.
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we do know after 18 holes, he's at 4 under, his best opening day at the masters ever. that nike commercial, nike bout air time on espn. it has been all over the place for free since. as you see, it features tiger woods mute, blinking once in a while while he gets life coach narration from the disembodied voice of his deceased father, earl. >> i just want to find out what your feelings are and did you learn anything. >> a person familiar with the production told "the wall street journal" the audio of earl woods was culled from old interviews and tiger woods and his mother both approved the commercial. something tells me they did not approve of the following internet remakes. >> rehabilitated. well, now, let me see. >> hey, it's -- it's tiger. can you please take your name off your phone, my wife went through my phone. >> most of you have at one time or another been told about venereal diseases.
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you've been frightened and no doubt you've been warned of the terrible consequences of getting a venereal disease. use of the sex organs has no affect on their ultimate size, but overuse may have an exhausting effect as all athletes know. >> quickly. all right. bye. >> let's bring in columnist of "the washington post," gene robinson who gets to follow that. good evening. >> thanks a lot, keith. >> i know you've been watching this as you've been writing your column today. at least from the people on the ground, is the reception for tiger woods about what you expected? >> actually, it's warmer than i expected it to be. he really got quite a boost, i think, at the first hole. now, granted, anyone who heckled him at the masters was going to be bounced off the grounds.
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so people knew that. but he was quite warmly received. it wasn't maybe as enthusiastic as it could have been in some other years. but it certainly seemed to buoy him as he smoked his first drive down the middle of the fairway for, you know -- it was like the old tiger woods, only actually statistically it was better than the old tiger woods has done in the first round of a masters. i'm sure his peers are delighted to see that the layoff does not seem to have rusted him up very much. >> the commercial, the nike ad, the sports columnist for your paper said that the ad portrayed penance as commodity, which is a great point. but if your penance is sponsored, did you not cross the line between personal life and sport over there? >> you erased the line. obliterated it.
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i think you should agree, everyone should agree, it is really pretty creepy. it is, i would say, devastatingly effective in that we're all talking about it, and thinking about it, and it does sort of work its way into your consciousness. but i'm not sure in a good way. but it does work its way in. you know, does it sell anything for nike, i don't know. but it gets them out there. does it do anything for tiger woods? well, i think it does kind of belie what he has been saying about this internal process of self-discovery that he's been going through. that's -- you know, you have existential conversations with your late father i think in private. i don't think you do it on television with a nike swoosh there. >> he does look like oliver there in the gruel line, please, sir, can i have another. perhaps not the message he wants
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to get across. >> i don't think so. >> last point here. this has taught us that every golf term is a double entendre if you're in the correct mood, right? >> every single one. this is a sport in which, let's face it. we take a lot about strokes, we talk a lot about holes. it's just there. and if one has the proper, kind of juvenile frame of mind, which i usually do, and i now you usually do, keith. >> that's right. >> yes, it's all a double entendre. >> never mind laying up. like myself, a 13-year-old kid, great thanks for your time. good to talk to you, my friend. let's go down to the swimming pool now. >> good to talk to you. >> we'll go see ooh chi. we're opening bubble gum cards in a moment. >> good night. john hodgeman, participant in a secret number one story which involves my apology, redemption and my finger. yes, there are places worse than
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those tea parties, like the tea party gatherings. don't wear your good shoes. and a two-fer, tom coburn is calling himself courageous for screwing people on unemployment and he describes rachel as emotional. i'll be gentle on him since she'll make him regret public service. is like something out of a spaceship. which is why, mechanics nowadays are more like rocket scientists. they have to be. the technicians at ford and lincoln mercury dealerships are highly trained. they really do know their stuff. and, they have all the parts to make sure the job gets done right. get the works - an oil change, tire rotation and more just $29.95 or less after $10 mail-in rebate. does this thing do email? you betcha. see, smart and friendly.
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>> what if your doctor didn't like the doctor, the urologist in florida has done, and refused to take it and put up a sign, then what can they do? they can't put them all in jail, or what will happen? >> the question is what about this urologist in florida, if you voted for obama you need not come here for care. >> yes. yes. the woman somehow thinks doctors are largely opposed to health care reform, when in fact they largely support it. but to continue. >> i applaud what he said and did and it's his first amendment right to do that. >> really? he's got a first amendment right to see patients based on how they voted? is that the same first amendment right doctors in the south used to invoke, refusing treatment of black people or keeping them out of hospitals? at this point the congressman warns people not to say things that would cause the media to demonize them. >> we conservatives have to be careful about, and even you the
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tea partiers, the claims are made that you spat upon people and you use racial epithets. we know that isn't true. >> of course you do. the word of a congressman should always be believed over that of a 23-veteran of the house and hero of the civil rights movement, like john lewis, who was obviously lying, we all know they were communists, especially the black ones. >> the mainstream media still goes out there and talks about it. even fox sometimes talks about it, and they put republicans into a defensive position, they put you in a defensive position. so, you see, we're definitely fighting with one hand tied behind our backs. so we have to be very careful to be effective without being characterized as wing nuts and marginal militiamen and people like that, like they're trying to do to you. >> congressman, members of the
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red river ku klux klan, let me clue on you in. fox news, nobody's characterizing you as wing nuts, marginal or militiamen, you are wing nuts, marginal and militiamen.
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i can't tell you anything about the number one story,. except that john hodgeman is here as my spirit guide. but tonight's worst persons in the world. tim paw leapty, not only did he
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sell himself out for the bachmann fear festival yesterday, he did something even stranger. the wonkette site reports he bought the name bachmannrally.com and used it to redirect traffic to his own site. when you sell your soul 1% at a time, does it feel the same as when you do it all at once? can you compare notes with senator mccain? and hannity, you put all this in toto and we're looking at the socialization of the model coming to america, we're looking at the end of capitalism and america as we know it. i want to add a point. he is, and i say this with all sincerity and passion, heel go down in history as the worst president we've ever had. i'm talking about national security and economic issues.
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wow, he thinks bush will go down as the worst -- oh, obama? i should have known when he said i say this with all sincerity and passion i can muster up. which is like a two on the scale of 100. do we need to review the comparable point as the bush presidency how many americans were already dead because of his negligence or how many would die in iraq because of his obsessions? but coburn bouncing all over the place, his grand stand to block unemployment benefits is symbolic, not really harmful to anybody, because it only affects, quote, a relatively small group of people. the easiest thing is to pass this bill unpaid for. but consider the millions of americans whose financial futures would be damaged versus the relatively small people who will be affected by this delay. you tell me which vote takes the most courage. the number of americans who will lose their benefits while coburn preens over pay as you go, when he helped put this country in debt by suporting bush's pay later for everything in iraq. the number that this affects is 212,000. 212,000. that is twice the population of
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the city of norman, in senator coburn's state. meaning to him, norman, oklahoma, is only half of a relatively small amount of people. you know what courage is? trying to live on unemployment, especially when some holier than thou idiot in washington cuts your unemployment off for a week. senator tom not a profile in courage coburn, today's worst person in the world. ♪ [ male announcer ] we make them beautiful. ♪ we make them tougher. ♪ we make them legendary. we make them better... ♪ to make your life better. ♪ and we've never made one... quite like this. the 100% electric nissan leaf.
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just about anybody in the world can now call, text, e-mail, blog, post on facebook, g-chat and, of course, tweet. those last examples represent just examples of ways we can communicate on the worldwide
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web, as if it is so vitally important to know what everyone else is thinking and doing at every moment. i have another way to communicate, since i have my own tv show. more importantly, a blog. late in the summer of 2008, i signed up for twitter. then i suddenly thought, i think i might accidentally give a lot of people my e-mail address so i blinked. i'm still ajusting to the idea of cable tv. i used to believe in brownies and elves. but adjustment is life. thus, the number one story, i will type out my very first tweet. and before i do that, john hodgeman will answer all my questions about it. twitter began on march 21st, 2006, with a message from jack dorsey quoting, just setting up my twitter. the mighty full-scale version was launched in july of that year. the next thing you knew, people had followers. i always thought people were following me anyway, so why add technology to paranoia? so my twitter account was
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voiceless, as it could be. but there's my twitter page. here's my address,@keitholbermann. so you can follow me if you want. i got seven followers before we even started this thing. although, those are not tweets, those are the sounds of crickets. joining me as promised, john hodgeman, also author of more information than you require. if i can interrupt you, i'd like to say good evening. >> i'm sorry, i was updating my twitter feed. >> very nice. >> seven followers already. very nice, keith. doing well so far. >> this is like speaking before birth, right? >> exactly. >> or having people listen to you before birth. >> indeed. >> 240 followers. the cat's out of the bag. why do i want to do this? >> i can only speak for myself. i enjoy twitter because i am an egomaniac. and it amuses me. it's like being able to pass a
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note simultaneously to everyone in class. and the class sometimes grows to be the size of a small town or country. >> there you go. >> so for me, and for lots of people who use twitter, it's essentially having your own broadcast television show for the very few of us who do not already have their own cable television show. that will change in the future, but for now we have twitter. >> thank goodness it's changed or neither of us would be sitting here at the moment. i'd be raising plants. what do my follower -- potential follower. >> your growing crowd. >> my growing crowd, what do they want to know? >> behind the scenes type stuff. twitter is an intimate medium. one of my followers wants to see your cornell degree again. >> thank you. >> i think people like to know what you're wearing on your feet right now. but they want, with all writing, you have to always tell the truth. you have to be honest. this is an honest medium. so tell them, for example, about the green room here, and how chris hayes had an ice sculpture
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of his head and a chocolate fondue fountain sxand i had a coffee. i didn't know we had a green room. there are things they don't tell me. >> always be honest. >> should i tweet during the commercials and if so, what? >> you shouldn't tweet more than you feel like tweeting. a lot of people will yell at you that you're tweeting too much. an equal number of people will yell at you you're not tweeting enough. you get to encounter this whole hive mind, this crowd of people, and you get to see crowd dynamics very clearly. there is a percentage of people who are always going to be yelling at you. you need to know this right away. >> it matches the rest of my life completely? only those people are management. mac or pc. >> i am a mac user myself. twitter is good on any platform but it was designed for mobile devices, or so i've been told, so you can useou